why do they speak french first at the london olympics

The opening ceremony of the London Olympics held many surprises, not least the Queen parachuting in. But one surprise that had some Londoners scratching their heads was the official announcements being made first in French and only then in English. At first sight this does seem odd, given this year s Games are taking place in an English-speaking country. In fact, the International Olympic Committee uses both French and English as its official languages. So all Games feature these two languages as well as a third в the host country s official language в if necessary. The use of these two languages as the official languages of a competition will be familiar to anyone who has sat through the, willing their favourite entry to avoid the dreaded nul points.

But why is the French announcement made before the English in an Anglophone country? Well, it seems because the IOC said so. The committee is, after all, based in Lausanne in Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. What s more, the founder of the IOC and father of the modern Olympics was a Frenchman,. He saw the Games as an embodiment of noble ideals with a role in promoting peace and cross-cultural understanding. In addition, he believed the competition itself, the struggle to overcome opponents, was more important than winning: L important dans la vie ce n est point le triomphe, mais le combat, l essentiel ce n est pas d avoir vaincu mais de s Гtre bien battu.

Perhaps English speakers should bear this in mind, and this time be content with second place? , English is not really the world language Even here in the USA. English, which was first colonized by the English and Great Britain, was never officially declared the national language. We don t have an official one set. French is still widely used around the world. A plethora of places in Africa have French as the official language.

France itself and some other European countries have French as the national language too, like Belgium and Switzerland. Quebec and some other parts in Canada also speak French fluently and regularly, however I m not sure if it s actually declared the national language there. I believe English is the national language declared in Canada but I have many friends in Quebec that say everything there is mainly in French/French Canadian. No French is not as widely used in the world as some other languages, but it is hardly dying. The Olympics are very traditional so they are probably sticking with the original as mentioned in this article above.

Plus you have to think of the nations that actually compete and participate in the Olympic games. English is the second official language of the Olympics. Out of all the countries that participate French and English might be the most commonly used by participants. IE There might be more French and English countries that participate than say countries that speak Spanish, Arabic, or so on. (And then of course they add the language of the actual host country as a third language so they can cover just about everyone)